Sunday school meets three times a month from 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon during the school year. Classes are taught Pre-K through 8th grade, including Bar and Bat Mitzvah preparation.

Kids learn about Jewish traditions, major festivals, and biblical heritage from a social and cultural perspective. At all levels, children join the adults for singing in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino and English.

Year-by-Year Content Themes

(Use fall to determine if it is an odd or even year)

Grade

Theme

preK-K

Jewish Life of Our Community: Holidays and their symbols, mitzvot, and secular humanistic Jewish ethics and values such as love of learning, ethical action, Tzedakah, social justice, respect for life, friendship, personal responsibility for our actions and consequences.

1st/2ndeven years

Our Celebrations: Jewish holidays and their origins; how they are celebrated in our homes, our community, other Jewish communities, and in the world; relevant music, food, art and dance; links to non-Jewish observances like Thanksgiving and Solstice; life cycle events such as birth, B’nai Mitzvah, marriage, death

1st/2ndodd years

Jewish Lives: Defining our values as secular Jews, doing the right thing, having a positive impact on the world, expressing our values through action, and learning about some famous people who exemplify this theme; also how Jews around the world celebrate holidays.

3rd/4theven years

Our Stories: Historical context of the Bible, Bible stories in the secular context and as a way to teach values, cultural practices, and our history, history of ancient Israel

3rd/4thodd years

Our History: History of the Jews and Judaism, culture in ancient times, issues of class, discrimination and resilience, social justice, intellectual tradition, early Diaspora and Jewish life in various countries, shetl life

5th/6theven years

Jews in the U.S.: Different phases of immigration to the U.S., Jews in early U.S., involvement in social movements (labor movement, civil rights), American Jewish experience and culture, assimilation, class issues, branches of Judaism, Jews in Chicago, Jewish literature focused on the U.S. , and the history of secular Jews in the U.S.

5th/6thodd years

Jews in the Larger World: Diaspora continued, the Holocaust, establishment of modern state of Israel, Kibbutz movement, history of the Middle East conflict, our tradition of critical analysis and questioning, discrimination and resilience in the recent past and present, identifying and fighting prejudice, literature focused on the Holocaust or Jews in other countries

B’nai Mitzvah

Becoming B’nai Mitzvah: In addition to preparing the students for the B’nai Mitzvah celebration, which includes an exploration of their family history, a social action project, interviews with significant adults in their life, Bible study, and the opportunity to express their individual beliefs and values at the ceremony, some time is spent trying to understand the history, the culture, the significance, and the meaning of secular Judaism.

Categories That Cross All Grades/Years

Each class is encouraged to complete a service or social action project that is tied to the topic of that year, and that the students help to select. Each class (excluding preK-K) is encouraged to have a field trip which is relevant to the content they are studying. Examples are a trip to a museum, social service agency, or nature facility.

In addition, there are threads that are woven through all of the grades in different ways. The threads include how secular Jews celebrate Jewish holidays, and Jewish culture (e.g., music, food, dance and humor).

Teacher's Corner

Corinne Oak Schecter
Pre-K

Corinne and her family have been an integral part of SJCS since first joining the community in 2014. Corinne is especially proud of her involvement with PADS as well as her daughter Henna who is a B’nai Mitzvah graduate as well as a TA. Her husband Noel also teaches on Sunday making their involvement with the school truly a family affair.

Besides teaching at SJCS, Corinne is a Speech Pathologist who primarily works within the Early Intervention system (a home-based program for children age zero to three). Her focus is on training parents and caregivers within a child’s natural environment. Outside interests include dancing, hiking, laughing, and spreading joy.

Brielle Seitelman
Kindergarten/First Grade

Bri grew up in Oak Park in a mixed-faith family. She is happy to be back in the village while pursuing a Master’s degree in occupational therapy at UIC.

Bri has worked with children in many different settings: coaching Oak Park’s coolest soccer players in AYSO’s VIP league, running cooking camps for young chefs at The Chopping Block, and working towards healthy lifestyles with families in Pilsen who have children with disabilities. She is excited to play and learn with the Kindergarten and first grade class to explore Secular Judaism together. When she is not teaching at SCJS, you are likely to spot Bri at the farmer’s market, studying at a coffee shop or walking her dog Mila.

Noel Schechter
Second/Third/Fourth Grade

Noel and his family have been members of SJCS since 2014. In that time Noel has served on the Education Committee as well as worked as a substitute teacher. He also is proud parent of a recent Bat Mitzvah graduate.

Noel has worked as a School Psychologist within the Chicago Public Schools for approximately twenty years where he has focused on providing direct services to students that have been identified as having Autism Spectrum Disorder. Outside interests include hiking, camping, biking, writing, and reading.

Rebecca Irwin
Fifth/Sixth Grade

Rebecca was raised in a secular family in Davis, California. After ten years as a biology professor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, she moved to Forest Park. Soon after moving to this area, Rebecca and her family joined SJCS to explore their Jewish identities in a secular community.

Rebecca also started homeschooling, and has been homeschooling her daughters and developing and teaching interactive science classes for homeschooled children for the past ten years. She loves developing similarly interactive activities for her students at SJCS.

Aaron Podolner
B’nai Mitzvah

Aaron Podolner leads our young adults through the transformative experience of becoming B'nai Mitzvah. The B'nai Mitzvah class is very project oriented, and Aaron enjoys connecting Secular Judaism to each of the projects.

Aaron grew up as a Secular Jew in Oak Park and has taught physics at Oak Park and River Forest High School for seventeen years. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics and education at Kalamazoo College and completed his Masters in Curriculum and Instruction at National-Louis University.